How are we supposed to protect our children if we are unarmed?

 We must protect our family's. I think firearms should be mandatory for this world is extremely dangerous. Your family safety should come first. Just put your firearms in a safe place.

 There is nothing wrong with having firearms in a home with children, Just keep the arms locked up in a safe with a trigger lock on the arm and keep it unloaded. Also control you children. Have rules for them to obey.

 I grew up with guns in my home. At 3 yrs old I was shown what it was and was taught about gun safety. As I aged I was taught more. For example: At 3 I was told not to touch this. This will make you die or someone else if you play with it. As I grew I learned more in detail. If you are responsible in teaching your children about gun safety it should not be an issue. Think about even 100 yrs ago. It was a way of life to be able to use a gun at a young age. If one is responsible in parenting about guns, their child will also be responsible when around the gun. It is when one hide the gun brings on the curiosity of the child to explore this " new toy"

 I disagree.

It seems more reasonable and consistent with a free society to ask that for responsible gun ownership and care. What we need is responsible gun owners to take the necessary precautions to protect the children residing in and visiting their home.

 I live in a town of about 2000 people and 85 90 %
of the homes have on the average 2 plus guns.and
we in grant county oregon have not had a child hurt by a gun that I can remember or have heard about.Why?because they are raised to respect them and are trained to use them to hunt.They know they are atoll not a toy.

 I know a cop who has children and keeps his gun in a lock box and his bullets locked in a separate drawer. While i don't think its the best thing to have around children at the same time its sometimes necessary. As long as it hidden or protected and out of hands of their children i don't see why both can't coexist within the same household.

 Actually people who do have children should be the ones who really should be able to have fire arms because not only when a home invader comes in do they have to protect themselves but they also have to protect their children.

 If you have children then you should take extra care to make the guns secure in the home. Its assinine to say simply cause you have children you cant have guns in the home. People with children have the same rights of defense then those that have no children. This is America not ww2 Germany.

 What did Smith and Wesson say, "The pistol makes things even between the little guy and the big guy."

 Guns were readily accessible to us when we were kids. Most household where I grew up had one or two leaned up by the back door. Our parents taught us responsible use of a firearm.

If your premise were upheld, then a family I saw in the news recently, including a little girl (I believe she was 12) would probably be dead right now. They were victims of a home invasion. Unfortunately for the perps, this little girl not only had access to a shotgun, but she was a professional skeet shooter. She and her family are alive, the bad guys are dead.

The anti-gun crowd likes to spout stats and so forth about accidental gun deaths.. But they get strangely mute about how many times last year a weapon was used, successfully, to prevent a crime (275,000, in which less than 3% required a weapon even be fired).

If the arguments put forth to get rid of guns were valid justification, then the justification for never allowing a minor to get a driver's license is far greater. A car is a deadly weapon too.. And responsible for more deaths in the hands of kids than guns ever thought of being.

 So what about the parents who have to carry firearms because there job requires them?

Not all kids go snooping. Some kids actually listen to there parents when they are told not to do something. However, there are children who constantly test what the parents have to say. So it depends on the type of kids the parents have to make any type of accusation of any type of firearms allowed into their home.

I admit that some parents are idiotic and underestimate there child's ability to find things and unlock codes to safes. Parents must remember that there child knows there them better then anyone else; so who better to crack the adults code better than there own child???

Anyways....where was I ... Oh yes. In the end it all depends on the situation on whether the family should have firearms in the house or not. Who am I to tell my grandpa that he shouldn't have had a gun when he was just a dad? My mother always listened and was a great child and never came near her father's gun. Who am I to tell my father that keeping a gun in the house is wrong? I never looked for my father's gun. I watched my sister closely so that she didn't go looking for it either. Besides my father has to keep it with him because of his job.

 The logical extensions of the Pro argument is that Police and other habitually armed personnel must either leave their weaponry somewhere outside their own homes ... Or courts might prohibit them from even visiting their own children while they are armed. There are surely sane safety measures short of such extremes.

 Firearms in a home are safe as long as they are kept in a safe place away from the children and have trigger locks on them and the ammo in a safe spot some where away from the weapon.

 As in all things Responsible people do the right thing. Responsible parents keep harmful chemicals locked up and out of reach. Responsible gun owners keep guns out of reach of children &&&&& they TEACH children about Guns. Many children who grow up in places where hunting is enjoyed have had gun knowledge from a very young age. Knowledge is power. They make gun locks.. They make gun cabinets. Irresponsibility breeds irresponsibility. You cant blame the gun because a parent failed to do their job. Kids are Kids which is exactly why they need to be taught and exactly why a gun should be locked out of reach.
On the lighter side of this:
Guns vs. Doctors (for all of you gun control freaks out there)
Doctors:

- The number of physicians in the U.S. Is 700,000.
- Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000. (and they cause millions more with known-to-be-fatal prescription drugs and unnecessary surgeries.)
- Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.

(Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health Human Services.)

Guns:

- The number of gun owners in the U.S. Is 80,000,000.
- The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.
- The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 000188.

(Statistics courtesy of F.B.I.)

Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

Remember, "Guns don't kill people, doctors do."

FACT: Not everyone has a gun, but almost everyone has at least one doctor.

Please alert your friends to this alarming threat immediatley. We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!

Note: Out of concern for the public at large, the statistics on lawyers have been withheld for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention.

 Parents need to have rules and educate their children. There are a multitude of items in a given house which can harm children; drugs, knives, household cleaning chemicals, etc. A gun safe is a cheap investment where the drugs which I'd be much more concerned with can also be put out of reach. If you're relying on child-proof caps as protection against misuse by children, don't, that's only protection for old people like me!

 Many families need the gun in their home. I know someone with a gun in their home who has two kids and she needs that gun. She needs it because her husband is often out of town and if someone broke in and started hurting her child she needs that gun! Think of it this way, what if you got rid of the gun because you got children then some guy breaks in the house and hurts/kills your child. Then you would be very angry you got rid of that gun because you thought your children would get hurt from it when you could have saved your child with it!